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Biology

M.S. and Ph.D. in Biology

» Department of Biological Sciences » College of Science

INTRODUCTION
WHAT IT TAKES
WHAT PEOPLE DO
GET INVOLVED
FACULTY

The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho offers opportunities for advanced study at the master's and doctoral levels. You have the option to pursue a Master of Science (M.S., thesis), Master of Natural Science (M.N.S., non-thesis) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biology. Interdisciplinary and related graduate programs include:

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program (M.S. and Ph.D.)
Neuroscience Program (M.S. and Ph.D.)

In our graduate program, you will learn how to apply proven research methods, generate novel research approaches and methods, and evaluate evidence to solve complex problems. Whether you’re working as a researcher at a local or state agency, like the Department of Fish and Wildlife, or working in a corporate research lab for a pharmaceutical company, you’ll be equipped with the scientific background and research experience needed to make an immediate, positive impact in your chosen profession.

In addition, if you are interested in becoming a high school teacher or teaching at a junior college level, the Master of Natural Science program will prepare you for success and, in most cases, higher pay.

Research is a critical component of our thesis-based graduate programs. Faculty research is clustered in three main areas, including:

Ecology and evolution (animal behavior, genetics, microbial ecology, systematics)
Neurobiology (retinal development and neurophysiology)
Reproductive biology (development, endocrinology, fertility)

The University of Idaho Department of Biological Sciences program is well-equipped with modern teaching, library and research facilities. These facilities provide a collaborative learning environment for our nationally recognized faculty and graduate students. Click here for more information about our research facilities and equipment.

Prepare for Success

To prepare for the Department of Biological Sciences graduate program, you should have a genuine interest in biological systems, research and teaching. If you plan to pursue a Master of Natural Science (M.N.S.), you should also have the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in biology with a year of physics, mathematics through calculus, and chemistry through organic. If you are interested in building a career in private industry, particularly in management or administrative positions, you should also possess strong business and communication skills and be familiar with regulatory issues and marketing and management methods.

When applying for the program, please be familiar with the department’s Web site and the research interests of the faculty. Ideally, contact one or more of the faculty members in whose work you’re particularly interested before formally applying. In the application, you’ll be asked to highlight your research interest areas and goals; indicate if there is someone (or several) with whom you’d be interested in working.

To be admitted into the program, you’ll need good undergraduate grades and several letters of recommendation as well as solid performance on the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). If you are an international student, you will also need to do well on the TOEFL examination, complete a telephone interview with members of the department and do well on the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK) test after arrival on campus.

Your First Year

As a graduate student, you will complete a teaching practicum, in which you'll teach undergraduate laboratory sections, a statistics course and several elective courses. These electives correspond with your area of research and are identified with your advisory committee. In addition, Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) students take professional development for biologists, ethical issues in biological research, and several seminar or journal club courses. It generally takes two years to complete the M.S. and M.N.S. and four to six years to complete the Ph.D. option.

What You Can Do

With a graduate degree, you can move into many innovative careers in the areas of applied research, product development, management or inspection. You may choose to become a high school or college-level teacher, or you may want to build a career in private consulting or management where you focus on medicine, agriculture or environmental protection.

Whether you’re working in the food science lab at Procter & Gamble or you are a genome specialist leading the discovery of genes associated with specific diseases and inherited health risks, you’ll have the opportunity to help people by pairing your scientific education with industry experience.

Opportunities

Many of our biology graduate students have built exciting careers in academia, at the Environmental Protection Agency, pharmaceutical research and sales companies, and law enforcement agencies.

Current Research

Your research interests will largely determine what faculty member is best suited to be your program mentor. For more information click here. Here’s a sampling of faculty research areas:

Matt Anyway, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Dr. Anyway is researching the molecular processes that regulate the adult testis and prostate gland in men. His team is studying how environmental toxicants and age affect the function and disease onset in the testis and prostate gland. His team is using a variety of molecular approaches in attempts to characterize the function of the epithelial cells at the molecular level.
Deborah Stenkamp, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Dr. Stenkamp’s research interests center on the examination of cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate retinal development and regeneration, with a specific focus on photoreceptor differentiation, using zebra fish as the primary experimental model. A major area of current investigation is the involvement of specific factors such as the signaling protein, sonic hedgehog, in regulating the differentiation of rod and cone photoreceptors.
John A. Byers, Professor, Ph.D. Dr. Byers is an animal behaviorist primarily interested in behavioral development, play, sexual selection and female mate choice. Projects now underway in this study, which has run since 1981, are measurement of costs and benefits of female mate choice and evaluation of the fitness consequences of inbreeding in the population.

Hands-On Experience

Our graduate students are very involved in groundbreaking research activities on campus and off-site. Here a few examples:

Mutation frequency in E.coli. Hyo-Jin Ahn, Ph.D. biology, is working to determine if the changes in cellular growth rate are correlated to mutation frequency in E.coli.

Migration patterns of pronghorn antelope. Kerey Barnowe-Meyer, Ph.D. biology, is conducting research on pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) located in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park. He is investigating their migration and habitat selection strategies, spatial patterns of fawn recruitment and local and regional genetics.

Ecomorphology of shrews. Ken Berger, Ph.D, is working on ecomorphology of Western shrews and phylogeography of the wandering shrew, Sorex vagrans.

Reproductive toxicology. Josh Boyce, Ph.D. biology, is conducting research that is at the intersection of endocrinology and reproductive toxicology. He’s studying the function of the four known estrogen receptor isoforms in the rainbow trout, particularly during the stage of vitellogenesis when yolk proteins are being incorporated into the developing egg under the control of estrogen.

For more information, visit our graduate student research page.

Facilities

The University of Idaho features several top-rated research facilities, institutes and centers on the Moscow campus:

Matt Anway, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The research in my lab focuses on understanding the molecular processes that regulate the adult testis and prostate gland in men. We study how environmental toxicants and age affect the function and disease onset in the testis and prostate gland. We utilize a variety of molecular approaches in attempts to characterize the function of the epithelial cells at the molecular level. In the prostate, we are interested in determining key regulatory events that could be used as biomarkers for prostate diseases. In the testis, we are interested in understanding the hormonal regulation of the Sertoli cells and how age influences their functional processes.
» manway@uidaho.edu

Onesmo Balemba, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The area that interests me most for research is the pathophysiology of diseases that affect gastrointestinal (GI) functions. I would like to focus on investigations leading to better understanding of neuromuscular and immune system host responses in diabetes, and infectious diarrhea, and therapeutic strategies for these conditions.
» obalemba@uidaho.edu

Celeste Brown, Ph.D.
Associate Research Professor
Dr. Celeste Brown has two research areas, how gene regulation changes in response to selection, and the evolution of disordered proteins. The link between these two disparate areas is that often proteins involved in gene regulation are disordered. The gene regulation studies involve laboratory-based research and the disordered protein studies involve bioinformatics approaches.
» celesteb@uidaho.edu

John A. Byers, Ph.D.
Professor
I am an animal behaviorist primarily interested in behavioral development, play, sexual selection and female mate choice. I am a member and Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society. I maintain a longitudinal study of a population of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) on the National Bison Range in western Montana. Projects now underway in this study, which has run since 1981, are measurement of costs and benefits of female mate choice and evaluation of the fitness consequences of inbreeding in the population.
» jbyers@uidaho.edu

Joseph G. Cloud, Ph.D.
Department Chair & Professor
Projects in Dr. Cloud’s research program are primarily directed toward understanding germ cell development in salmonids and the establishment of a germplasm repository for threatened and endangered fish. Ongoing research projects in the lab include the cryopreservation and transplantation of salmonid gonads and the isolation, culture, and reestablishment of germinal stem cells. Additionally, sperm collected from numerous populations of Snake River chinook salmon and steelhead are cryopreserved and stored annually.
» jcloud@uidaho.edu

Gary Daughdrill
Research Associate Professor
Research in my lab focuses on developing a greater understanding of how the three dimensional structure of a protein specifies biological function. In particular, I am interested in the relationship between protein flexibility and biological function. When novel genes are sequenced, their structure and function can often be reliably predicted based on sequence similarity and evolutionary relationships to proteins with known structures.
» gdaugh@uidaho.edu

Larry J. Forney, Ph.D.
Professor
The research done in Dr. Larry Forney’s laboratory centers on the diversity and distribution of prokaryotes. Both field and laboratory studies are done to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of community diversity, as well as factors that influence the dynamics of inter- and intra-species competition and how environmental conditions might influence the tempo of adaptive evolution. Most of these studies are highly interdisciplinary in nature, and done in collaboration with mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, geologists, environmental engineers, physicians, and clinical scientists.
» lforney@uidaho.edu

James A. Foster, Ph.D.
Professor
My research objective is to explore and attempt to understand both natural and simulated evolution, a field I call “evolutionary studies.” I develop and analyze algorithms, such as multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic inferencing algorithms. I also explore the practical and theoretical limits of algorithms modeling evolution, such as genetic programming and genetic algorithms.
» foster@uidaho.edu

Luke J. Harmon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Our research investigates ecological and evolutionary aspects of adaptive radiations. Current projects span a wide range of taxa and time scales, including adaptive radiation in E. coli biofilms, evolution of island lizards in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, and macroevolutionary dynamics of vertebrates. You will find more information about all of these projects on the research and publications pages.
» lukeh@uidaho.edu

Candi K. Heimgartner
» cheim@uidaho.edu

Rolf L. Ingermann, Ph.D.
Professor
Rolf Ingermann is investigating the reproductive physiology of lower vertebrates at the biochemical, cellular and organismic levels. He is currently examining various aspects of metabolic regulation within gametes of salmonids and sturgeon. These include pursuing questions focused on inhibition of sperm motility and fertility by carbon dioxide, control of sperm metabolism by carbon dioxide and pH, the role of stored (versus newly synthesized) adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the functioning of sperm and eggs, and the physiological significance of the very low buffering capacity of fish seminal fluid versus other body fluids and tissues.
» rolfi@uidaho.edu

Denim M. Jochimsen
Lecturer
» denimj@uidaho.edu

Kevin R. Kelliher, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
I have broad research interests that overlap and combine the fields of neuroendocrinology, chemoreceptive sciences and behavioral neuroscience. My research program addresses fundamental questions about the neural control of social behavior at cellular, systems and behavioral levels. One aspect of my research addresses the relative roles of different chemosensory systems or subsystems for the processing and perception of chemosensory cues that influence social behavior.
» kelliher@uidaho.edu

Bruce Mobarry
Lecturer
Bruce is currently teaching Bio 116
» bmobarry@uidaho.edu

James J. Nagler, Ph.D.
Professor
Nagler’s research interests cover the broad area of fish reproductive physiology. There are four main avenues of current research emphasis. First, the endocrinology of estradiol within the gonads of the rainbow trout and the functional implications for sexual development. A second line of research is exploring the unusual occurrence of male-linked genetic markers in female fall chinook salmon in the Columbia River watershed. The cause and consequences of this occurrence are being investigated.
» jamesn@uidaho.edu

Scott L. Nuismer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. The overall aim is to better understand how coevolution shapes patterns of biodiversity and the geographic distributions of interacting species. Work in my lab addresses these issues with a combination of mathematical modeling and field studies.
» snuismer@uidaho.edu

Olle Pellmyr, Ph.D.
Professor
My research interests are primarily in the evolutionary ecology of species interactions and coevolution, with foci primarily on pollination biology and herbivory. Most current work deals with the evolution and maintenance of mutually beneficial interactions, and for the last several years I have used one of the classical cases of coevolution - yucca and yucca moths – as a model system for this purpose. My lab is divided in two work spheres to integrate fieldwork and lab-based analyses. Most projects combine ecological, behavioral, phylogeographic, and phylogenetic tools that together can test hypotheses about micro- and macroevolutionary aspects of plant-animal interactions.
» pellmyr@uidaho.edu

Barrie Robison, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
My general research interests lie at the interface between genomics, evolutionary biology, and fisheries biology. Specific areas of research emphasis in my lab include the genetic architecture of complex traits, the evolution of locally adaptive phenotypes, and genomic analysis of behavioral variation in fish. I employ two study systems to investigate these issues, the rainbow trout and the zebrafish.
» brobison@uidaho.edu

Erica Bree Rosenblum, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
My research emphasizes understanding the processes that generate and impact biological diversity, with a focus on adaptive evolution across different levels of biological organization. I employ functional and comparative genomics tools to develop a mechanistic understanding of adaptive traits at the molecular level. However, I also work with real organisms in their real habitats, and my research is motivated by evolutionarily and ecologically important questions.
» rosenblum@uidaho.edu

Kristin A. Simokat
Lecturer
» ksimokat@uidaho.edu

Deborah Stenkamp, Ph.D.
Professor
Stenkamp’s research interests center on the examination of cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate retinal development and regeneration, with a specific focus on photoreceptor differentiation, using zebrafish as the primary experimental model.
» dstenkam@uidaho.edu

John "Jack" M. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor
Our understanding of the processes of nucleotide substitution (DNA sequence evolution) has been expanding greatly over the last 10 years. Furthermore, it has become apparent that ignoring such processes as heterogeneity of base composition, substitution pattern, and rate variation among nucleotide sites can compromise attempts to estimate phylogeny from DNA sequence data. Therefore, model-based analyses of DNA sequence data have become increasingly wide spread because such approaches afford the investigator the opportunity to account for such processes explicitly.
» jacks@uidaho.edu

Eva Top, Ph.D.
Professor
Eva Top is a microbial ecologist whose interests can be roughly divided into two major areas. The main research interest is the role of horizontal gene transfer in the adaptation of bacterial populations and communities to changing environmental conditions, and in bacterial evolution in general. The second area of interest is the diversity, structure and dynamics of bacterial communities in natural or bioreactor environments, such as soil, sediments, wastewater treatment reactors, and gastrointestinal ecosystems, and how these communities respond to various disturbances.
» evatop@uidaho.edu

Holly A. Wichman, Ph.D.
Professor
The Wichman Lab studies viruses and their subcellular relatives, transposable elements. These two lines of research are united by a molecular approach and a strong evolutionary context. L1 elements have been active in mammals for over 150 million years and make up about 20% of the genome. Most of the copies in the genome are ancient molecular fossils, so it is a challenge to sift through all of the old copies to find those that have been recently active.
» hwichman@uidaho.edu